Sea change at Kaikoura
It would have been an incredible event to witness, if it hadn’t happened in darkness, just after midnight on the morning of November 14, 2016.
A 7.8 magnitude earthquake forced a 110 kilometre stretch of the Kaikoura coast to rise up from the sea. The uplift varied, from half a metre to almost 6 metres at Wipapa Bay..
Aquatic creatures and marine vegetation which had lived mostly underwater, struggled to adapt to a terrestrial world. Especially hard hit were slow-moving species such as limpets and paua, and thousands of them perished under the summer sun.
Today, it’s easy to identify areas of uplift, most platforms are covered by a carpet of green algae, commonly known as sea lettuce.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1ftQiZXDZ0